Market Place

Digital Access

Home Delivery

Local news, prep sports, Chicago sports, local and regional entertainment, business, home and lifestyle, food, classified and more! News you use every day! Daily, Daily including the e-Edition or e-Edition only.

Text Alerts

Choose your news! Select the text alerts you want to receive: breaking news, prep sports scores, school closings, weather, and more. Text alerts are a free service from SaukValley.com, but text rates may apply.

Questions what leaders were thinking

I’m sure you have heard the saying, What were they thinking? or, What are they thinking? I’m referring to the mayor and most council members of Mount Carroll.

Examples are buying and storing bricks at Amboy; letting the Galena Street bridge rust and rot away; sending a notice to owners of the Hass property, to either repair or demolish the building, but saying they wouldn’t issue a demolition permit, but not saying anything about the Boyd building that’s falling down, being held up by trees and weeds.

Additionally, overpaying thousands of dollars to Moring Disposal for nonexistent users; creating a TIF district, without a TIF board to oversee the distribution of the tax money; loaning out money from federal funds in the revolving loan fund, without adhering to rules, such as the loan to the Campbell Center, that they plan on paying back at the rate of $50 a month for 70 years.

Now the super brain plan is to get rid of the time clock. One of the main reasons is because the city clerk doesn’t want to be bothered reading the punched cards, which are unreadable anyway. I have copies of some you can look at.

Time clocks have two main purposes; one is to ensure the employee is there, and the second reason is that the employee has proof of being there.

Alderman Charles said county employees do not have time clocks. The courthouse employees do not punch a clock, but the highway department employees do.

The street department workers, and one water works employee are usually there. Two from the water works department seem to come and go as they please, if they come.

Maybe these questions should be asked to the city attorney or the state’s attorney.